Over carbonated?

[BohWarden]

First time kegging and everything seemed to be going smoothly. I've had my beer hooked up at 10 psi for 11 days now and the carbonation level is about half of where I want it to be.The problem is that I'm getting 80 to 90 percent foamy head when I pour at 10 psi. From what I've read the culprit seems to be my 5 ft. beer line.
What length do you guys recommend? Is there a way to get good pours with my 5 ft. line? Any other advice is certainly welcomed.


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[W0rthog]

I set my PSI to BeerSmith Calculations, balanced my lines using the formula.



PSI - 1 - (.5 for every 1 foot elevation) / (3 PSI for 3/16) = hose length

22 - 1 - (.75) / 3

or

22 - 1.75 / 3

or

20.25 / 3 = 6.75'



I still had foam issues until I started using an ice cold glass and tapped the beer into the glass at an angle. Now I get a nice pour at 3.6 vol for my Weisse Bier. I think a warm glass causes foam also.



My final hurdle is that I still get foam at first because my tower lines are not as cold. I plan to push air from my kegerator into the insulated tower lines using a computer fan. That should chill the beer in the tower lines at the very top.


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[W0rthog]

Using the formula and your parameters it would look like this.

10 PSI - 1 / 3 = 3 foot

This assumes no elevation change and that you're using a 3/16 ID vinyl hose. For example a tower or if your pouring higher or lower than the keg.

For every 1 foot increase in elevation, you lose another .5 PSI. Every foot decrease in elevation you gain .5 PSI.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2011/07/14/keg-line-length-balancing-the-science-of-draft-beer/



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[acidrain]

10' of 3/16".
Some people use some kind of flow restriction, but I did not have any luck with that. As soon as I lengthened my lines, everything was good.